1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to apparatus for supporting a banjo from a player's body, and more particularly to an apparatus for supporting and distributing the weight of a banjo from both the torso and the shoulders of a banjo player in adjustable proportion.
2. Prior Art
Prior devices for supporting a banjo from the banjo player's body generally consist of a single strap that passes over one shoulder of the musician. The two ends of the strap are connected respectively to the top and bottom of the banjo resonator.
Such devices are most unsatisfactory in use because a banjo is quite heavy and the weight on the player's shoulder soon becomes uncomfortable and fatiguing. Banjo players are usually called upon to stand while performing, and such performances typically last three hours or more. Hence the problem of discomfort and fatigue is very significant.
The directly relevant prior art thus fails to provide any relief to banjo players, who are constantly shifting the shoulder strap from one position to another and never really comfortable.
Due to the unique character of the banjo, devices for supporting other types of instruments--and for supporting other types of equipment in general--are of questionable relevance. In the absence of significant prior art directly related to the field of my invention, however, I shall discuss below some support devices in these other fields.
Known devices for supporting the weight of a musical instrument from the body of a person playing the instrument include those described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,254,901 to McIntosh, 3,102,446 to Raleigh, and 4,226,161 to Goetsch. Another possibly relevant device, though it is not even for supporting a musical instrument at all, is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,152,738 to Worsfold; his device is for holding a camera.
McIntosh discloses a combination of straps for supporting a guitar in approximately equal weight proportions from the player's two shoulders. This system includes two straps passing over the player's shoulders and coming together in front of the player's torso at a point immediately atop the guitar body. The two straps are interconnected behind the player's back, and from this interconnection point a strap passes around one side of the player's body to a suspension peg at the bottom end of the guitar. McIntosh explains that this latter strap is provided for the purpose of "additional stability"; thus it apparently bears no significant fraction of the weight of the guitar.
Raleigh, on the other hand, shows a single waist-encircling belt for an electric guitar. His belt "removes the instrument's weight from the player's neck" and "permits the instrument's weight to be carried at the waist of the musician." He does not suggest that it would be desirable to suspend any of the weight of the guitar from the player's neck or shoulders.
Analogously Goetsch describes a combination of straps for supporting an accordion from the player's waist, and in particular for minimizing the weight of the accordion on the player's shoulders. His system includes one strap connected at the two sides of the accordion, near the bottom of the instrument, and passing around the accordion player's waist or hips.
Goetsch also provides a pair of shoulder straps, each connected to the accordion at two points. The left shoulder strap is connected to the accordion at the top left corner of the treble section of the instrument, passes over the player's left shoulder, and apparently (though the drawings are unclear in this regard) is connected to the accordion partway down the back of the left edge of the treble section. Similarly the right shoulder strap is connected to the accordion a few inches to the right of the top left corner of the treble section, passes over the player's right shoulder, and apparently is connected to the instrument partway down the back of the treble section.
Goetsch's shoulder straps are provided solely to "stabilize [the] accordion . . . in front of [the] musician"--whereas the waist strap "transfers the weight of [the] accordion . . . to the musician's waist thereby relieving substantially all of the weight of the accordion from [the] shoulder straps . . . " None of the straps in Goetsch is interconnected to any of the other straps.
None of the devices discussed above supports an instrument from both the torso and the shoulders. None is designed to let the user shift any of the weight from torso to shoulders or vice versa.
At first glance, Worsfold's camera straps may appear to be sharing the weight of his camera adjustably between the upper and lower straps. Worsfold describes adjustment of the tension of his straps by means of the "slidable adjusters". But careful study of Worsfold's disclosure reveals that there is no significant adjustability of weight distribution, and indeed bearing the weight of a camera is not the thrust of Worsfold's invention.
In fact the weight of a camera is quite inconsequential, and the purpose of Worsfold's invention is not weight distribution but rather convenience. He sets out to obviate the dilemma of people engaging in an activity such as hunting, fishing, hiking or sailing, as they try to "grasp the instrument in one or both hands . . . without interfering with such activity and risking possible serious injury to the instrument [i.e., camera]."
Worsfold therefore uses elastic straps, to resiliently secure the camera firmly against the user's chest. Consequently Worsfold's adjustments are only for the purpose of obtaining a desired firmness of tensioning of the camera against the chest.
Moreover, the thrust of Worsfold's innovation does not even go to tensioning a camera in place against the chest while the camera is in use. His invention holds the camera in place when the camera is not in use. When the user wishes to actually use the camera, the user moves it into an entirely different position against the forehead or at the waist, by pulling against the tension of the elastic.
If elastic straps were used to support a banjo in playing position during use of the banjo, the banjo either would be held too tightly against the musician's body or would extend the elastic fully so that the resiliency would serve no useful purpose. In fact, I have experimented with elastic straps and found them very unsatisfactory. Worsfold, like the musical-instrument supports discussed earlier, does not teach or even suggest any system for distributing the weight of a heavy instrument to minimize discomfort and fatigue during protracted use.